In a move to curb stray dog menace, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena has approved the allotment of land for setting up a dog sterilization centre cum veterinary hospital and dispensary in southwest Delhi's Vasant Kunj area.
According to Raj Niwas official, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will allot a plot of land measuring 483 square metres to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) for developing the facility in public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
While approving the proposal, the LG directed the DDA to ensure that since the proposed facility comes under essential municipal services, the sterilisation of stray dogs should be done free of cost. Revenue generated from the centre through other means, like services and treatment of pets should be used for running the facility, officials said.
The centre will be set up in build operate and transfer mode with the conditions that all expenses for construction, medical equipment, operations and payment to employees shall be borne by the PPP partners selected through a bidding process, they said.The successful bidder will pay an annual license fee to the MCD. According to officials, the proposal for setting up the centre was pending since 2019. The Raj Niwas, in light of the growing incidents of dog bites and the rising menace of stray dogs in the city, had said that the land being allotted by DDA to the MCD should be on the condition that it provides free services for the sterilization of stray dogs. In the recent past, there have been several incidents where stray dogs have attacked people leading to deaths in some cases.
The Animal Birth Control (Dog) Rule, 2001, deals with the population control of strays. It provides for the neutering strays to achieve population stabilisation, as opposed to killing them. Improper implementation of this law is also seen as a major reason behind the growing menace of stray dogs. MCD officials said 57000 stray dogs were sterilised till May in 2022-23 and it had raised the target to 80,000 this year.
While five dog sterilisation centres under MCD are owned and operated by NGOs and 11 by organisations and private veterinary doctors, five centres are yet to be allotted to NGOs, said officials.
“The NGOs and private veterinary doctors are reimbursed Rs 1,000 per dog captured, neutered and released. If the dog is captured by MCD and handed over to the NGO, the payment is Rs 900 per dog,” said an official. The Animal Welfare Board of India had designated over 200 feeding points in Delhi-NCR from 2014 to 2022, which was considered too few for the number of colonies in the region.